As Things Come
by peroxidepest17
Summary: They always just deal with things as they come.


**Title:** As Things Come  
**Universe:** Here is Greenwood  
**Theme/Topic:** N/A  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Character/Pairing/s:** Shinobu, Mitsuru (guest appearances by Shun and Hasukawa)  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** For Vol 9 and essentially the end of the series.  
**Word Count: **1,265  
**Summary:** They always just deal with things as they come.  
**Dedication:** for Ann, who got me started on this quirky little series way back when.  
**A/N:** First Greenwood fic, as I just finished reading the series um, last week? Though I read the volumes so far apart from one another all details have been wiped from my mind. Hope it um, is in character SOMEWHAT. Also, this wasn't anything on my to-do list, I just felt the need to write something of my own volition that wasn't owed or prompted in any way.  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, though I wish constantly.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

Not long after graduation, Mitsuru discovered that life after Greenwood was a lot like life during Greenwood, if only because Mitsuru woke up to the same face nowadays as he had back then, in a similarly cramped space with similarly limited funds.

The only real differences he could cite were the fact that the dorm he lived in didn't really have a name now—just a number—and college made it decidedly easier to skip classes, if only because he didn't have to force his classmates to stuff some of his clothes with straw, paint a face on the dummy, and stick it in his seat until he could sneak in through the window, toss the doll out of it, and pretend he'd been paying attention the whole time while Shinobu fed him the answers to the things he'd missed, under his breath from the next seat over at a dollar a pop.

When he mentioned these similarities (and differences) to Shinobu, the other boy simply looked up from his textbook and blinked at Mitsuru, asking, "Why, does it bother you?"

"No," Mitsuru responded, folding his arms behind his head. He stared at the ceiling. "Does it bother you?"

Shinobu went back to his reading. "All you can do is take things as they come."

Which had always been a part of Shinobu's life philosophy, Mitsuru supposed, and he knew that it had gotten them from point A to point B more times than worrying about the future or nostalgia for the past ever had.

And so college began for them, and while they thought about Greenwood and what Hasukawa was doing now that he didn't have to be constantly on alert anymore, each day passed all right all the same because they took things as they came and didn't worry about anything else in the interim.

On Sundays they went around knocking on doors to borrow change for laundry, and when that stopped happening (i.e. their dorm mates caught on) Shinobu would drag Mitsuru down to the quad and charg a dollar a photograph to the visiting hopefuls touring the grounds. Shinobu kept 60 of the profits because he was the real entrepreneurial spirit amongst the two, but always bought Mitsuru an extra dinner with their earnings that night anyway. Sometimes they remembered to do their laundry, and sometimes they didn't.

On Mondays if they still had some money leftover from Sunday's activities, they tried to pay back some of the other people in the dorm they still owed so that come next week, they'd be more willing to lend them laundry change and Mitsuru wouldn't have to pose with any more girls screaming "Moe!" in his face while their friends snapped pictures of him and tried to smell him. Shinobu made notes and thought they should charge for sniffing rights too.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays Mitsuru had class all day and studied diligently in them because he really did plan on graduating someday. On Thursdays he paid only slightly less attention because he had that class with Shinobu and Shinobu always took better notes than him anyway. They were only a dollar a pop, too.

On Fridays they both had half days, and when they remembered, made it to the bank to deposit the checks from their families for living expenses. Sometimes they forgot though, but that only made Saturdays and Sundays more interesting. Friday nights were occasionally spent sneaking back into Greenwood to evaluate how Hasukawa was doing now that he didn't have to constantly watch his back, as well as catch up on gossip with Shun and make sure the new dorm head was properly terrorized. Shinobu played cards with some of their kohai and every now and again, made a tidy little profit in a good-natured way. Mitsuru played some video games and often had to explain why there were a bunch of pictures of him posing with various girls floating all over the internet.

"You guys are living together still, eh?" some of the second years pointed out, and laughed. "Aren't you tired of one another yet?"

"Of course not!" Shun told them, and tossed his long hair neatly over his shoulder as he talked down to these underclassmen who obviously knew nothing of how the universe worked. "They're a team you know. I can't imagine one without the other."

"I don't want to picture that!" Hasukawa protested.

Mitsuru supposed he was maybe a little embarrassed at the assessment too, while Shinobu—unflappable as always— just took advantage of the distraction to raise the stakes of the hand he was currently playing before revealing a neat four-of-a-kind with which to sweep the pot.

"I don't believe it!" a second year wailed.

"We just understand one another is all," Shinobu supplied as he pulled in and counted his earnings, even if the loser hadn't been referring to the statement about he and Mitsuru at all.

On the Saturdays after they visited Greenwood and Shinobu did well, they woke up early to go and get breakfast, before sequestering themselves inside their room to do their homework from earlier in the week they hadn't as of yet touched (that was when Mitsuru bought Shinobu's class notes). On the Saturdays after they _didn't _go to Greenwood (which, oddly enough, usually coincided with the Fridays when they forgot to go to the bank), they used what little money they had left to ride a train down to Akihabara, where Shinobu charged progressively exorbitant rates to foreign otaku who wanted to see them gaze longingly into one another's eyes. Mitsuru had been initially traumatized and horrified by the lengths Shinobu was willing to go to ensure their funds for the next week, but after the second or third time, he ceased to be spooked by even the other boy's hand on his thigh. Mitsuru supposed this was him just taking life as it came, as per Shinobu's advice. However, no pictures were allowed of these moments all the same, because while they could easily explain away Mitsuru's circulation on the internet with various nameless girls, something like the two of them being gazy and longing and together might possibly put them in a bind with their former dorm mates. Even if admittedly, it might be funny to see Hasukawa's reaction to something like that because he was so paranoid and suspicious all the time.

On the Sundays after the Saturdays when they didn't have to go to Akihabara, they were usually out of cash by then, and the cycle began anew—a self-perpetuating circle of life revolving around dirty laundry and girls smelling Mitsuru's sweaters while they posed for pictures with him in the quad.

Week by week, such was life after Greenwood for Mitsuru and Shinobu both.

One particular Sunday afternoon— after the quad, while they were waiting for their laundry to finish—Mitsuru stared at the ceiling introspectively and asked, "So, what are we going to do after college?"

By that point he was under the assumption that the "we" was pretty much a guarantee, and when Shinobu didn't say anything about it in particular, it was as good as a promise.

"All you can do is take things as they come," Shinobu said instead, and sounded perfectly sage, even as he sat there—cross-legged on the floor while he read—in nothing but a pair of plaid green boxers and a pair of socks.

Mitsuru wished he still had some clean socks left lying around too, and wondered if Shinobu would sell him some for a dollar a pop.

**END**


End file.
